Sen. Patrick Brazeau: The unsolved mysteries of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada

The unsolved mysteries of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada

It has gone by many names, DIAND, INAC, AANDC. Its reach is enormous. It has handled billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars. It is the only government department named specifically for a race of people. It has been practicing its massively expensive and highly mysterious craft for many decades. But what exactly does it do and how does it do it? The sad fact of the matter is that you don’t know and neither do I.

What we do know is that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada spends over nine billion of your dollars annually. And we are being told loudly, provocatively, and angrily that this is not enough. Sadly one may be called racist for wanting to hit pause for a moment and ask a few questions. I would encourage all Canadians, regardless of their racial make-up, to persist in asking these important questions. If anything is racist, it is to allow political correctness to cloud judgement or to excuse poor accounting out of dreamy-eyed romantic deference to aboriginal peoples. Math is not racist. Let’s get on with getting the facts and get on with helping out the kids!

What’s problematic is the Assembly of First Nations’ demand to expand its members’ share of the proceeds from mining, forestry and other forms of resource-extraction. Natives groups already reap billions annually from such arrangements — both through formal agreements, and ad hoc informal deals that sometimes look more like shakedowns. In cases where First Nations become active partners in these commercial projects, as both trained workers and managers, the result can be healthy economic development. But too often, the payouts — whether justified under “treaty obligations” or not — end up being just another form of welfare. And as many First Nations leaders themselves are beginning to realize, that is not what natives need.

Nor is the answer for Ottawa to simply cut bigger cheques, delegate powers, and get out of the way — which seems to be Bob Rae’s preferred solution.

We know that AANDC reporting requirements call for each of the over 630 aboriginal communities to submit independently audited financial statements every year and that all spending is checked against approved budgets. We know that AANDC requires financial reports to be made available to community members. Failure to report along these guidelines is supposed to result in funding being stopped until the reporting requirements are met. Where are these reports? Why is the money targeted for infrastructure not being used to solve the problems that seem to make living conditions on reserve almost uninhabitable? Where is the department in enforcing its own rules?

Consider this exchange from the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples in which I ask for a simple answer regarding the funding of First Nations Education. Here you will find senators asking concrete, specific questions and being met with all manner of creative obfuscation and long-winded bureaucratic non-answers. When asked how they can verify that funding for First Nations students gets to First Nations students (and not say, for a new Zamboni, or expensive consultants), they skate around in a fashion not seen since Disney on Ice.

To be fair, the individual public servants who make up AANDC are often very bright and kind Canadians who are earnest in their desire to help aboriginal people. But being earnest does not feed anyone, doesn’t ensure a clean, dry, warm home and does not pay for education. For that we need accountability and transparency. If AANDC is not up to the job of enforcing its own rules and regulations, perhaps it should be dismantled. Government departments are meant to serve their constituents — in this case, aboriginal people.

While we mull this over, we might also ask the question of how certain chiefs and council members seem to receive very handsome salaries and benefits while families go without clean drinking water. All calls for aboriginal leaders to address these issues result in defiance. I have spoken to a number of people who have been involved in working with aboriginal communities, and they consistently express grave concerns on how funding is used by a few to benefit their lives at the expense of lives of all community members.

The recent liquid diet performance by Chief Spence from Attawapiskat has increased the focus on this issue. Isn’t the most suitable response to demand that the accountability for the $9 billion be made public? I cannot imagine a rational argument against such a demand. It’s time for both AANDC and the chiefs to come clean.

National Post

Sen. Patrick Brazeau was born in Maniwaki, Quebec, and is a member of the community of Kitigan Zibi. A champion of the rights of aboriginal peoples, he worked with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) from 2001. He was was elected National Chief in February 2006, and re-elected to a four-year term in November 2008.